Fashion Completes Its Surrender To The Internet, Agrees To Put Cats In Everything

It’s taken longer than anyone thought it would, but it’s finally happened: the fashion world has officially surrendered to the Internet. There will be no more grumbling about Tavi Gevinson‘s front row seats at fashion shows, and Franca Sozzani will never refer to bloggers as “a disease” again. Magazines will put all of their content online, for free, and of course, there will be cats in every photo. Let’s pop some Franzia and dance around in our muumuus, guys, we’ve won!

According to Buzzfeed’s Amy Odell, cats are appearing in more and more fashion campaigns and editorials, and cat modeling agencies (they have those) are doing a brisker business than ever. From the above ’09 Lanvin ad to V‘s recent shoot co-starring Laetitia Casta and Karl Lagerfeld‘s feline fame whore, cats are becoming their own pajamas. “I think they’re really seen and respected as a creature of beauty and elegance, and sometimes sensuality, because of their beautiful, stealthy bodies,” cat modeling agent Cathryn Long told Buzzfeed. (Do you think she ever goes into an existential tailspin over her useless humanities degree?) “They’re really so much more highly regarded and appreciated than they ever used to be.”

Of course, Long is only half right about this. Rich people have prized cats for centuries for their bitchy personalities and willingness to be anthropomorphized, but I think the recent phenomenon has more to do with fashion catching up to what the internet already knows: people—most people, not just fashion snobs—fucking love to look at cats. I mean, think about it. Love of cats cuts across race, sex, and political affiliation, uniting us all save for those brutish simpletons known as “dog people.” Jennifer is annoyed by this, but I think it’s great, because nothing will ever match the sheer, unadulterated joy I feel when I watch a cat chase a laser pointer, fall off a couch, shut itself in a cooler, or walk on its front legs. Theirs is a world of simple pleasures and baffling puzzles, each day more tantalizingly confusing than the last. I imagine being a cat is a little like being very stoned all the time, interspersed with the ocasional bout of psychedelic hallucinations. Just the right combination of relaxing and exciting.

TL;DR: I wish I was a cat. Preferably that of Karl Lagerfeld. I’m probably better suited to being Maru, though.